I found a robber fly, possibly Laphria thoracica flavicollis (as identified on Bugguide) today while I was chasing butterflies. It had captured a small colorful bug as its prey. The activity had already attracted a scavenger. Note the much smaller fly taking advantage … Continue reading →

I just got back from a work trip to Camp Ripley in central Minnesota. I took the opportunity to visit some local wild areas there after work. There is a SNA site called The Ripley Esker. I was mainly chasing … Continue reading →

This is a robber fly, probably an Efferia species. It seems to be ovipositing (laying eggs) on the head of a pale purple cone flower. What happens after that is open to some speculation. Scientists are not sure how the … Continue reading →

I have always found robber flies to be impressive. There are two small species around my place that are very common and I have photographed them a lot. There are some others that are larger and not very common, and I … Continue reading →

There is another small robberfly–3 or 4 mm long, which seems to be fairly common. I do confess that I never noticed them before last year, however. It is Holocephala. There three very similar species in the Eastern U. S., … Continue reading →

Cerotainia is an effective predator. It seems to prefer perching on the tips of leaves that have long narrow points. Although they are not large there are a lot of them and they are pretty good at capturing prey.

There is a tiny robber fly that is quite common around here. I never noticed it until a few years ago. Now I see them everywhere. This is Cerotainia albipilosa. Funny how you can go a long time never noticing … Continue reading →